On August 10, Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to ban the display of circus animals. Thus there is no legal barrier to the Senate campaign of Pete Coors, who easily won the Republican nomination for the Senate seat of retiring Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

Coors, of the brewery family which has funneled huge sums of money to ultra-right groups, proposed during his campaign that the drinking age be lowered. Coors doesn’t care about the horrible damage that teenage drinking does–beer company profits are under pressure and the money has to come from somewhere. Lowering the drinking age would go hand in hand with the takeover of live music venues which breweries have staged, along with their fellow drug-pushers in the tobacco industry.

Pete Coors is also a board member of the Heinz Corporation, the giant business empire controlled by Teresa Heinz, aka Mrs. John Kerry. The Heinz Corporation is the ultimate source of much of the money the Kerrys are using to run for President.

If Pete Coors introduced a bill into the Senate to amend the Constitution to lower the drinking age (he’s made it clear he doesn’t want to lower it only in Colorado), how would John Kerry vote? Based on past history, he wouldn’t even show up to vote or make any statement on his position. Kerry only shows up to vote in favor of important things like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the war in Iraq, NAFTA, welfare reform, and the Patriot Act.

LEE BALLINGER is coeditor of one of CounterPunch’s favorite newsletters, Rock and Rap Confidential, where this article originally appeared. For a free copy of the issue, email your postal address to: RRC, Box 341305, LA CA 90034 or send an email to: Rockrap@aol.com

Lee Ballinger, CounterPunch’s music columnist, is co-editor of Rock and Rap Confidential author of the forthcoming book Love and War: My First Thirty Years of Writing, interviewed Honkala for CounterPunch. RRRC is now available for free by emailing Ballinger at: rockrap@aol.com.